Many handicapped people are challenged to accomplish everyday tasks that non-handicapped people take for granted, and systems and mechanisms are known in the art to help the handicapped. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,530 to Eccleston (1999) entitled “Remotely Controllable Automatic Door Operator . . . “provides a system to help the handicapped open and close room doors.
Modern wheelchairs have improved mobility for many handicapped people. However after a wheelchair bound person has entered a public building, it can be very challenging for such persons to make elevator floor selections.
For many wheelchair bound individuals, the control buttons for many elevators are located too far above floor level to be easily reached, thus making it difficult for such individuals to select a floor by pressing an elevator control button. Some wheelchair bound individuals may not have the use of their hands and consequently will control their wheelchair with a specialized system. Some such systems are controlled by positions of the handicapped person's head, or by a straw mechanisms through which the handicapped persons blows and sucks air.
Even if the elevator control buttons are within reach, many handicapped individuals lack sufficient hand motor skills to press the desired button to select a floor. For example, a person, wheelchair bound or otherwise, with a severe hand palsy may lack to the ability to press a single small button that is one of many buttons on the elevator control panel. In practice, it is not uncommon for a wheelchair bound person to wait, often for an extended period of time, until a non-handicapped person can be asked to assist in pressing the elevator control button.
In short, there is a need for a system to enable handicapped individuals, including wheelchair bound individuals, to more easily select floors for an elevator without assistance from others. Such system should be universally accessible and controllable by any wheelchair bound person as long as that person can control their wheelchair. Preferably such system should provide user selection of floors using a single control, which control should be actuatable by contact with a portion of a wheelchair and/or another object under the control of a user, including a portion of a user's body. Such system should provide universal access in that the handicapped person should not require special skills or equipment to make use of such system. Such system should provide for visual and/or audible choices for the floor selections that are available. Preferably such system should be useable from inside an elevator and/or from outside the elevator, e.g., adjacent the elevator entrance.
The present invention provides such a system.